Rural Contractor Offers Jobsite Transportation

RCS Influencer Mike Hicks says that while they don’t have a formal vehicle policy, they do have procedures in place for jobsite transportation.

I don't know that we have a vehicle policy, but I can share what may be of interest to others.  First, we supply jobsite transportation for the crew.  At one time, back in the 90's and prior, we required people to come to the shop, then be dispatched to the site.  We didn't pay drive time.  An audit by the Industrial Commission exposed the error of our ways and changes were made.

The crew now has the option of receiving a free ride (we are a rural company that serves a 2-hour radius) or they can drive to the job-sites themselves.  But it is a ‘choose which way you want to go and stick with it’ kind of proposition.  If they opt for the free ride, they must sign a document stating that this is their choice and that is why they report to the shop.

Only the driver is paid drive time and it is at a rate much reduced from our roofer's rate.  We encourage the foremen to share driving duties, as travel time can rack up quickly, putting a single driver into over-time pay by late Wednesday or early Thursday.  But a foreman has the option of hoarding the drive-time himself if that's what he wants to do.

Hourly foreman and service heads do not have a vehicle for personal use.  Production vehicles all have a GPS monitoring system attached to the vehicles.  Salaried sales persons and production-oriented positions have a company vehicle for their use.  Mileage is not monitored.

Michael Hicks is owner of Hicks Industrial Roofing. See his full bio here.